Chennai,  Shahan Ali Mohsin, the 17-year old from Agra, eyeing the title in the MRF F1600 category, dominated both the free practice (FP) sessions to set the early pace as the fourth and final round of the MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2021 got underway at the Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT), here on Friday.

Trailing championship leader Chirag Ghorpade (Bengaluru) by 13 points, Shahan posted a best lap of 01 minute, 39.541seconds in FP-1 and then bettered it with a 01:39.340 in the second session ahead of the triple-header to be run over the next two days.

Overall second quickest in this premier category was Bengaluru's Rishon Rajeev in 01:39.378. The three races this weekend promise to be high on thrill and excitement as the top seven drivers were separated by less than a second in the two practice sessions.

Defending champion in the premier Indian Touring Cars category, Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) from Coimbatore, posted the fastest lap of 01:50.074 in the morning's FP-1 and followed it up with a 01:50.762 in the second outing later in the day.

Also topping the time charts was Bengaluru's Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsport) who clocked a best lap of 01:51.909 over two sessions in the Formula LGB 1300 where he heads the championship.

Chennai's RP Raja Rajan (Performance Racing) was the quickest overall in the Super Stock category (01:57.643) as was Bengaluru's Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) in the Indian Junior Touring Cars class (01:56.868).

Pratik Sonawane from Pune, placed ninth in the championship and trailing leader Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) by 100 points, topped the combined practice sessions in the Volkswagen Polo category with a hot lap of 01:56.625. It bettered Sandeep Kumar's best of 01:56.806 posted in FP-1.

Chennai's Anand Prasad, returning to active racing after a break, was the quickest in the MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios) category with a best lap of 02:03.423 which he clocked in FP-2 to improve on Delhi-based Justin Singh's 02:04.932 in FP-1.